Waterbury evening Democrat., 1887-12-13
THE FRINGE ROYAL AND THE PRIZE
 RING.

THE FRINGE ROYAL AND THE PRIZE
 RING. Newspapers have much to answer for It may seem strange that the DEMOCRAT, still in its swaddling- clothes, should dare to lecture it's older brethren, arrived, it may be supposed, at years of discretion; but our freshness in the field justifes the playfulness of our fancy, and we cannot help saying that journalistic discretion is often of the algebraic condition-an un- known quantity. The public press, we re- peat, has much to answer for; it uncon- sciously-certainly undesignedly-encour- ages crime; the apotheosis of the assassin is an incentive to imitation; chronicling the sayings and doings of the condemned cell takes from the gallows its terrors, in the self-conceit of the culprit that he is the hero of the day; the publication of crim- inal biographies, with accompanying wood cuts, however vile, makes the degraded classes think that notoriety, even in mana cles, is better than insignifcance with mo- rality. And it is in the copious details of the life and adventures of the murderer for papers are answerable for mischief. And not only in the effect on the criminally dis posed; but in the introduction of undesir- able and often indecent details to circles where they are unwelcome.
 But there is another phase of this jour- nalistic culpability-criminal, too, in it's nature and essence-which is even more reprehensible than the labored deifcation of murder Murdea in its impulsiveness may be pitied, but that other crime, which is indeed murder without any impulse, save the grovelling one of a money prize and sometimes yearning for the fame of a championship, possesses no element for commisseration. And yet newspapers will print and publish the minutest details of the prize fighters movements as if he were prince among the people-but then even prince of the people has degraded him. self to the level of the rowdy. And they will, in-the slang of the arena, give the particulars of each ''round" contested, un-
 
 thought of how the human face divine has been battered out of all likeness of human ity; how Gods image has been lowered to an almost undistinguishable mass of bruised flesh and broken bones; and how in many cases the consummation of the murder would be mercy to the willing victim. Columns have been filled are every day filled-with demor- alizing particulars. The telegraph wires over land and under sea have been made tributary to messages for the information of the morbid. There is an excuse for the journalist; the public not only accept, but demand the reports; but if determined stand were taken, this pnb- lie taste would soon be corrected, and, s greater triumph still-the brutality of the Prize Ring would decline, by a decline o1 ,,;1is ;fiis meat it fed upon-a fictitious popu wllar ltlarity.
 All well thinking people at both side the Atlantic must have been disgusted 8 the details of the interview between the congenial spirits John L. Sullivan, the bruiser of Boston and Albert Edward, Prince of Wales the heir-apparent to a throne that ma, never be filled by him. What delightful prospect of Court decency in public is pre- s7nted to the enlightened people of Eng land by one who, if report speak truly has already exemplifed in private the pc culiarities of Court notoriety as it was un derstood in the days of-as Byron de scribes him-"the fourth of the fools an oppressors called George.'' The Prime petted and patted the pugilist, and tn pugilist grew maudlin and mauled tn Prince, and "Arcades Ambo" was the S lent verdict of all who heard or read of tn right royal interchanges of thought an feeling.
 Let us have done with these description of depravity. The gladiators of old It belled against the danger and degradatio of being made spectacle for Roman raI ble-''butchered to make Roman hol day''-and the servile wars were the pract cal protest. We do not expect Sullivan develop into Spartacus; for there princely pay and the praise of prince fe his surrender of decency and delicacy; b, our newspapers could become power the suppression by letting the Prize Rir and it's patrons, prince or plebeian, S verely alone.
 LIQUOR AND LEGISLATION.
 The promotion of public morals, the a vocacy of the temperance principle, tl aid to avery idea and every movement ha